Ezekiel 16:1-49 ▼

1 And the word of YHWH came to me, saying:

2 “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations,

3 and say, thus says the Lord YHWH to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite; your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.

4 And of your birth, on the day you were born, your cord was not cut, and you were not washed in water for cleansing, and you were not rubbed with salt, and you were not wrapped in swaddling cloths.

5 No eye showed pity to you, to do for you one of these things to have compassion on you, and you were thrown out into the face of the field in the loathing of your soul on the day you were born.

6 And I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your own blood, and I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ And I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’

7 I made you a myriad like a plant in the field, and you increased and grew and came into the adornment of adornments. Your breasts were established, and your hair sprouted, and you were naked and bare.

8 And I passed by you and I saw you, and behold, your time was the time for love! And I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness, and I swore an oath to you and came into a covenant with you—a declaration of the Lord YHWH—and you came to be unto Me.

9 And I washed you with water, and I rinsed off your blood from you, and I anointed you with the oil.

10 And I clothed you in embroidered cloth, and gave you sandals of badger skin, and I tied you in fine linen, and I covered you with silk;

11 and I adorned you with ornaments, and I put bracelets on your hands and a chain on your neck.

12 And I put a ring upon your nose, and earrings upon your ears, and a crown of beauty upon your head.

13 And you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered cloth. Fine flour and honey and oil did you eat. You were exceedingly greatly beautiful, and you advanced to royalty.

14 And a name for you went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in My splendor that I had set upon you, a declaration of the Lord YHWH.

15 And you trusted in your own beauty, and acted as a prostitute upon your name, and you poured out your prostitution on everyone passing by—it was unto him!

16 And you took from your garments and made for yourself multicolored high places, and you prostituted yourself on them—things that should not have happened and should not have come to be!

17 And you have taken the articles of your beauty from My gold and from My silver that I had given to you, and you made for yourself images of a male and prostituted yourself with them!

18 And you took the garments of your embroidery and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before their faces;

19 and My food that I gave to you—the fine flour, and oil, and honey I fed you—and you set it before their face for a pleasing aroma; and it came to pass! An utterance of the Lord YHWH.

20 And you took your sons and your daughters, those whom you bore to Me, and you sacrificed them to them to be devoured! Was your prostitution too little?

21 And you have slain My children, and have given them by causing them to pass through to them!

22 And in all your abominations and your prostitutions, you did not remember the days of your youth, in your being naked and bare; you were wallowing in your own blood.

23 And it came to pass after all your evil—Woe, woe to you, a declaration of the Lord YHWH—

24 that you built for yourself a mound and you set for yourself a high place in every public square!

25 At every head of the road you built your high places, and you made abhorrent your beauty by your opening your feet to all passing by, and you multiplied your prostitutions!

26 And you prostituted yourself with the sons of Egypt, your neighbors, greatly fleshly, and you multiplied your prostitutions to provoke Me to anger.

27 And behold, I stretched out My hand against you, and I diminished your portion, and I gave you over to the appetite of those hating you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your way of prostitution.

28 And you prostituted yourself with the sons of Assyria from your lack of being satisfied, and you prostituted yourself with them, and still you were not satisfied!

29 And you multiplied your prostitutions into the land of the merchants of Chaldea, and even in this you were not satisfied.

30 How weak is your heart, a declaration of the Lord YHWH, in your doing all these deeds of an imperious prostitute woman,

31 in your building your mounds at the head of every road, and your high place you made in every public square. And you were not even like a prostitute because of your scorning of a prostitute’s payment.

32 You are the woman committing adultery, who in place of her husband does receive strangers!

33 To all prostitutes they give a gift, and you—you gave your gifts to all your lovers and bribed them to come to you from all around in your prostitutions.

34 And it is the opposite from other women with you in your prostitution; and no one was after you to be a prostitute, and you gave a wage and a wage was not given to you—you are the opposite!

35 Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of YHWH!

36 Thus says the Lord YHWH: Because your lust was poured out, and your nakedness was uncovered in your prostitutions with your lovers and with all the idols of your abominations, and because of the blood of your children, which you gave to them,

37 therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you took pleasure, and all those whom you loved, along with all those you hated, and I will gather them against you from all around. And I will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.

38 And I will judge you with the judgments of those committing adultery and shedding blood, and I will bring upon you the blood of rage and jealousy.

39 And I will give you into their hands, and they will overthrow your shrines, and they will break down your high places, and they will strip you of your clothes and take away the articles of your beauty, and they will leave you naked and bare.

40 And they will bring up an assembly against you, and they will stone you with stones, and they will cut you up with their swords.

41 And they will burn your houses with fire, and they will execute judgment against you before the eyes of many women. And I will put an end to your prostitution, and even a single lover you will not pay again!

42 And I will lay to rest My fury against you, and My jealousy will turn aside from you; and I will be quiet, and I will not be angry anymore.

43 Because that you did not remember the days of your youth, and you caused enragement to Me with all these things, behold, I also, will recompense your way on your head! An utterance of the Lord YHWH. And have you not done this wickedness in addition to all your abominations?

44 Behold everyone quoting proverbs will use this proverb against you, saying, ‘Like her mother is her daughter.’

45 You are the daughter of your mother, loathing her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, those who loathed their husbands and children! Your⁺ mother was a Hittite and your⁺ father an Amorite.

46 And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, dwelling to the north of you; and your younger sister, dwelling toyour south, is Sodom and her daughters.

47 And not only in their ways did you walk, and according to their abominations you acted—as if too little—and you became more corrupt than they in all your ways!

48 As I live—a declaration of the Lord YHWH—Sodom your sister has not done, she and her daughters, as you have done—you and your daughters!

49 Behold, this was the guilt of Sodom your sister: Pride, fullness of bread, and the ease of idleness was unto her and unto her daughters, and the hand of the poor and needy she did not strengthen.